Yesterday I made a call to the surgery of a Palma ear specialist because all of a sudden and quite inexplicably my ears became blocked. Unlike in the UK, it’s quite normal to call straight through to medical specialists without referral from a GP. The Majorcan receptionist spoke at the rate of knots, something I’ve grown used to here when making appointments, but this time I was half deaf as well as foreign. Her voice rippled down the receiver like a darting fish underwater while I, in my imaginary diving bell, strained to catch every word, booming replies at the poor woman because of course my own voice sounded so small.

Expats and Majorcans are learning to speak the same language in schools

I was reminded while discussing oidos taponados, blocked inner ears, with the patient receptionist that an expat friend had once complained to her Spanish doctor of having ovejas bloqueados - blocked sheep – instead of orejas, ears.… Read more

A newly arrived British expat in Majorca told me how difficult she was finding it to make friends with other parents at her daughter’s school. Having opted for the Spanish system, she waved off her daughter at the school gate each morning, unable to converse with local Majorcan mothers who had next to no English, or with her child’s teachers. Although she and her husband were taking Spanish classes, she didn’t feel confident enough to conduct a conversation and had begun to feel isolated and miserable.

Some expats find it difficult making friends at the school gates

I remember my son’s first day at a local Spanish school. He made my husband and me stop at a petrol station en route and bought a large packet of sweets. We indulged him because a daunting day lay ahead but he calmly explained his logic in the car. As the only English-speaking child at the school … Read more

Some years ago, encouraged by Spanish friends, my husband and I opted to send our nine-year-old son, Ollie, to a newly opened private Majorcan school that their son Juan would also be attending. Having previously studied in the English language at an international primary school in Palma, we knew Ollie would be facing quite a challenge as the only English pupil of a school that taught in the dual language system of Catalan- compulsory in the Balearic islands- and Castilian Spanish.

Would the tri-lingual system work in Majorcan schools?

My memory of the first year was of all three of us sitting late into the evening in the kitchen, hunched over various dictionaries and text books trying to get to grips with Catalan grammar and vocabulary. At times in desperation I would cave in and call a close Majorcan friend, protesting that a word simply didn’t appear to exist in any Catalan dictionary. ‘Oh!’ she’d exclaim cheerily. ‘That’s Mallorquí dialect. You won’t find it anywhere. There is no Mallorquí language dictionary.’ Sometimes you just couldn’t win.

At school Ollie’s lessons were divided between the two languages so for example maths was taught in Castilian, geography in Catalan, biology in Castilian and so forth. This was unusual because in the state system in the Baleares it is compulsory to teach in Catalan with Castilian Spanish being relegated second place and English third. Private schools had found a loophole. They could teach more or less 50 per cent of their classes in Castilian which pleased many local families keen for their offspring to have a good grounding in the language most widely spoken on the mainland.

According to Majorcan friends, cunningly, many private schools now teach the ‘crunchy’ subjects in Castilian Spanish and sport, art and less academic subjects in Catalan. Children in the state system still don’t have that choice and continue to learn in Catalan meaning that when it comes to further education, they are mostly restricted to studying at the Balearic University or in Barcelona where subjects are taught in Catalan.

In recent years, education in the Baleares has rested woefully low on the international league tables of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). PISA, an independent study launched by OECD which measures student success in more than 65 countries globally, gave Balearic education a 457 point score, 24 fewer than the mainland, and 38 points behind the UK. An independent report showed that Balearic schools needed to be empowered, to improve to a minimum level, and to initiate performance evaluations. The level of immigration in the islands was studied and how that might affect class sizes and teaching but no one seemed to bring up the nitty gritty issue of Catalan versus Castilian Spanish in the classroom.

Now the recently installed conservative regional government, the Partido Popular (PP), has announced that within the next year, state primary schools in consultation with parents will be able to elect to have their children taught in the tri-lingual system of Catalan, Castilian and English. It’s a brave concept but many wonder how it can possibly work in practice. The majority of teachers on the islands prefer to teach in Catalan, their native tongue in which they have greatest proficiency, and very few have a genuinely competent level of English.

Having taught a group of local children for some years, I can bear testimony to the poor standard of English taught in Majorcan schools. Part of the problem is that the regional government will not employ native English speakers unless they have passed exams to a very competent level in the Catalan language. Recently I spoke with a Majorcan teacher who had surprisingly good English. She admitted to being a rarity, having studied in the UK. She told me that most of her colleagues who taught English in local schools had never even visited the country and had a poor grasp of the language.

Having spent long holidays in south Wales as a child I remember how my father’s parents would effortlessly switch between the Welsh and English language. In Wales the language is kept alive because it is compulsory in every school, although the main language is English. Perhaps a similar system could work over here in the future.

For now, the question of language is a hot potato in the Baleares, debated passionately by locals and expats alike. Of course those least consulted on the issue are probably the children themselves whose future rests in the hands of a lot of warring politicians and adults.

Knock, knock, who’s there? It’s the communists. Of course, I thought they’d turn up sooner or later. With the local Spanish municipal elections looming-they take place on Sunday 22, May- my household has suddenly attracted a whole new bunch of Majorcan friends.

Carlos Simarro of the Conservative PP party is predicted to win the mayoral race for Soller

For the last few days, a stream of cheery, smiling locals brandishing political manifestos and startlingly gaudy and amateurish flyers have lumbered up our rocky track, mopping their brows in the heat and announcing themselves cordially at the gate. There are twelve parties competing to run our town of 12,000 citizens and with only a few days left till lift off, would-be local politicians are buzzing about the valley like a swarm of frenzied bees.

The Progresistes per Soller (PSM) waxed lyrical about green efficiency, human dignity and the need to care for the town’s children, elderly and disabled. They told me that their party believed animal lovers, and fishing and agricultural groups had a right to be heard. What about reinstating funding of the town’s Christmas lights, or… Read more

In an effort to further boost regional diversity, the upper chamber of the Spanish parliament is now permitting five languagesto be used in debates. This might seem like a good idea in a country where the languages of Catalan, Galician, Valencian and Euskara are used in addition to the more widely spoken Castilian Spanish but not everyone is happy.

Five language Spanish parliament is causing a headache for interpreters

It seems that the cost of hiring interpreters to translate the words of those senators now wishing to communicate in their own language will cost €12,000 a day. Spanish socialists claim that the Senate is supposed to represent every region of the country and that the price for allowing such diversity in the upper chamber is justifiable. The conservatives care to differ and see the whole exercise as a ludicrous waste of money.

It’s estimated that about 16 million Spaniards are able to speak a regional language aside from Castilain Spanish and let’s not even mention the lesser known ones of Aranese, Asturian and Aroganese. Until now it seems that there has been no problem for senators to converse with one another in the common language of Castilian Spanish so this latest initiative is regarded by some as being an unnecessary expense when the country is already facing dire economic problems.

As many Spanish will testify, politics has a nasty habit of seeping into every aspect of life so one has to wonder whether this latest enterprise is just another excuse for petty point scoring by the socialists while the conservatives look on and seethe.

Whatever the weather, both sides would no doubt agree that something’s got lost in translation. Perhaps another time the upper chamber should consider debating in Double Dutch?

Tell me it’s not true. Can it be that footballer Wayne Rooney and his long suffering missus are really contemplating a move to sunny Spain?

The good news of course is that if he leaves Manchester United, my 13 year old son will be honour bound to remove the poster of his Neanderthal hero’s visage from his bedroom wall. On the other hand, I might be forced to see Rooney’s crumpled and belligerent face more frequently in the Spanish press.

Should Rooney think twice about relocating to Spain?

And what in heaven’s name would be the point of his relocating? So Rooney and his manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, have supposedly fallen out over the player’s dismal performance and indiscretions off the pitch. Surely that does not warrant his voluntary exile to the Mediterranean to join Real Madrid or Barcelona? Sent to Coventry maybe, but not to my beloved Spain.

There’s been great excitement in Majorca at the news that the Cathedral of Santa Maria in Palma has been declared the first green cathedral in the world. Who says?

It transpires that Palma’s famed Catalan gothic style cathedral that sits plumb in the heart of the old city and overlooks the glistening Mediterranean Sea, has been awarded an energy efficiency certificate by the Spanish Association for Standardisation and Certification (AENOR). The building, begun by King James I of Aragon in 1229 and not completed until 1601, is a large and draughty affair which guzzles heat and light at an alarming rate. For this reason the cathedral’s working committee has apparently been beavering away at reducing the cathedral’s energy consumption and heat loss.

Has Majorca got the best eco credentials?

It has installed new electrical wiring, energy efficient lights and created better pipe insulation. Such measures will apparently reduce electrical consumption… Read more

There have been red faces in the Spanish government as a result of critical comments made by Maria Otero, Under Secretary of State for Democracy in the United States, about the way some Spanish regions regard the Castilian language.

Speaking at the Millennium Development Summit in New York, attended by more than 150 Heads of State, Colombian born Maria Ortero urged the Catalan speaking regions of Spainto show more respect for the national language, Castilian. Her pointed remarks were aimed at the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and the Basque Country where Castilian Spanish is often regarded as a foreign language taking second place to English in many schools.

In the Balearic Islands teaching in Catalan rather than Castilian Spanish is compulsory and many children are taught to snub the national language or at least to regard it as second best. Of course this isn’t a problem for those pupils whose further education and career is likely to be on the islands but students hoping to gain entry to a Spanish university on the mainland, other than the Catalan university of Barcelona, might struggle to succeed.

In Majorca, a young veterinary graduate, a native of the island, told me that she had studied Castilian Spanish in her own time in order to enter a good mainland university rather than opting for the University of the Balearics. She explained that some adverts for graduate veterinary posts actually discriminated against those who had studied in the Catalan dialect because the expectancy was that their Castilian language skills would be poor and the level of education not so high.

The United States has good reason to take a dim view of those Catalans showing antipathy for the Spanish national language given that Hispanics represent its largest ethnic minority group. Even the White House website is available both in English and in Castilian Spanish in order to cater for the 48.4 million Hispanicsresiding in the country.

Though undoubtedly rattled by the rebuke, it is unlikely that the current socialist government will pay too much heed to Maria Ortego’s words given its affiliation with Catalonia. All the same, with an ever growing population of Hispanic immigrants, sooner or later, Prime Minister, José Luis Zapatero might be forced to sit up and listen.

The Spanish courtshave ruledthat the wealthy region of Catalonia in northeastern Spain can now call itself a “nation” but the champagne corks aren’t flying and no one seems too happy about it.

The Castilians argue that the constitutional courts have gone too far but for the Catalans, the courts haven’t gone far enough. They don’t just want to be called a “nation”, they want independence from the rest of Spain and they want Catalan to be recognised as their preferred language.

Ever since the Catalans emerged as a force to be reckoned with in the Middle Ages, they have spread their tentacles far and wide. During that golden period they were a significant maritime power setting down roots in America, the Baleares, Sardinia, Corsica and Sicily. They may have had their light dimmed in the 17th century when the new Bourbon dynasty took control in Spain but they remained a close-knit community, and were fiercely proud of their language.

Catalans want independence but at what price?

During the Spanish Civil War, General Francisco Franco banned the speaking of the Catalan language and so it moved underground. In the Baleares, elderly Majorcans have told me that at times they risked their lives to retain their right to use the Majorcan dialect, a derivative of Catalan, holding secret gatherings and speaking Mallorquí in the home.

After years of oppression and when finally liberated from the dictator’s iron rule, the Catalans understandably became fervent about their own language. Critics would say the fervour turned to militancy and now it is Castilian Spanish that is being made to pay the price. In Catalan schools and throughout the Baleares, it is compulsory that Catalan is the preferred language with Castilian Spanish often given lower status than English in the curriculum. My own son has for the last three years learnt in the dual language system which means that, for example, physics is taught in Catalan, biology in Castilian and history in Catalan, all with appropriate sets of text books.

Much as I understand the importance both culturally and historically of keeping a minority language alive in a particular community, its enforcement above that spoken nationally is cause for concern. My own father was brought up speaking Welsh at home but was taught in English at school. He therefore had no problem continuing his further education in England. This isn’t the case here. At university stage, the options are severely restricted. Most will flock to the Catalan university of Barcelona or here in the Baleares, the local educational facilities. Those Castilian Spanish arriving in the Baleares who make no effort to learn Catalan are often given the cold shoulder and there was even a move recently to throw out those Castilian speaking doctors from the mainland, however specialist in their given field, if they refused to adopt the Catalan language.

Catalonia or should I say Catalunya may have “nation” status, but it is actually meaningless. It doesn’t make the region independent neither does it give the Catalan language prominence. And if it did, what really would become of Spain? A nation divided or a nation at last at peace with itself?

Oh shame on the Brits! In a recent holiday survey, 62 per cent of respondents smugly admitted to never having learnt a foreign language because, wait for it, everyone spoke English. Gosh, I haven’t heard that one before. Now, for those planning a sojourn away from obvious tourist resorts in Majorca and Spain, let me advise that stubbornly sticking to inglés might not prove so clever. In my local town of Sollér, driven to some extent by tourism, some café and restaurant owners have a smattering of English, but not all. In the shops, most don’t bother because the Spanish, I have discovered, are about as chauvinistic as the Brits when it comes to learning another language. Visit the Balearic regional government, bearing in mind that tourism represents at least 80 per cent of the local economy, and you’ll be hard pressed to find one minister who can utter… Read more